Page 2 of The Scottish Island Inn

‘Your aunts could survive on the windy edge of a cliff.’ Angus tutted.

‘They could not. They’re elderly ladies.’ Catriona tapped Angus playfully on the shoulder. She knew that he was fond of both her aunts, Joan and Chrissie, but she had to admit that the pair could be difficult sometimes. They had come to live permanently at the Inn five years ago.

It was just what you did. You looked after your own. Her aunts were blood.

Blood was important. Blood was all you had.

‘The girls could move out and rent a flat. I know that Heather’s been saving for a house deposit, what with her and Matty getting married soon. But I don’t know what we would do. Running the Inn is all we’ve ever known.’ Catriona sat on her husband’s lap and laid her head on his chest. ‘Could you not… ask James?’

Catriona winced slightly, anticipating her husband’s response. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said anything, but it seemed like the obvious solution.

The Balhennie Inn had once been a distant gatehouse on the grounds of Balhennie Castle, a large and imposing fortress that had housed the head of the Balhennie clan since before the days of the Crusades. The castle as it was now had been built in the 1600s, with a couple of new wings added in the nineteenth century, but there had been something on that piece of land – a grander hut than the ones around it, a primitive clan chief’s dwelling made of slate and stone, perhaps – that belonged to the Balhennies even before the castle had existed.

Nowadays, the Inn was still on Balhennie land, but the layout of the castle grounds had shrunk a little, and no longer used the Inn as a gatehouse. The castle could be accessed by the public from a narrow road outside, though it was only open for visitors at certain times of the year. The rest of the year, the castle was a private residence only. Even when it was open to the public, the Laird – Angus Balhennie’s cousin, James – only made a small portion of the building available.

The Inn had come to belong to the branch of the Balhennie family that Angus headed up. There had been some kind of bad blood between the two branches of the Balhennies, back at the turn of the eighteenth century, and James’s ancestor, Sir Godwin Balhennie, had given Angus’s ancestor, Edward Balhennie, his cousin, the Inn as a kind of bargain. The deal was wreathed in mystery, and it was Angus’s favourite subject to bring up when he’d had too many whiskies.

Angus was convinced that, somehow, he and his part of the family had been cheated out of the ownership of Balhennie Castle, and that he was the rightful Laird, not James. He was always trying to find records and evidence to show that James should give the castle to him, which drove Catriona mad.

Angus was also obsessed with the lore of the Flag of the Old Ones: a scrap of ripped silk, now framed, which hung in the drawing room at Balhennie Castle. The flag – though that was a generous term – featured faded markings that some said were blood, and some said were a fairy spell. An old rhyme had come to be associated with the flag, which was considered a lucky charm by the Balhennies. The rhyme said that when the true Laird of Balhennie took ownership of the castle, the estate would become a land of milk and honey, a kind of paradise.

The true lord of this castle wields the Flag of the Old Ones in defence of his realm.

The true lord of this castle touches the Flag of the Old Ones without fear.

The true lord of this castle bears the sign of the Old Ones on his person.

When the true lord assumes rulership of the castle, the loch will flow with mead, the fields will be abundant with hares, and the trees will be heavy with fruit.

By His Grace and the blessings of the Old Ones.

Catriona personally thought the rhyme and the story of the flag was a lot of twaddle, but Angus considered it with the same gravity as the divine right of kings.

‘When the true lord assumes rulership of the castle, the loch will flow wi’ mead, the fields will be abundant wi’ hares, and the trees will be heavy wi’ fruit!’ Angus wagged his finger at his wife; she sighed internally.

‘What bearing does that have on our current situation, darling?’ she asked, patiently.

‘It means bad things are happenin’ because I’m no’ the Laird. Mark my words,’ he intoned dramatically.

‘Hmm. You should ask him for the money.’ Catriona had always found James to be a very pleasant man, and a good laird. He kept the rents low for the local residents of the land that he owned, was active in the community, helped out when people needed it. As well as the castle, he managed a boat tour business on Loch Balhennie, which stretched out behind the castle, and that brought in tourists – many of whom stayed at the Inn. James would even take a boat of tourists out himself and spend time fishing with them or taking them to places to spot the seals that could be found around the coast.

But Angus had always been determined never to rely on James, and never to be too friendly.

‘No!’ Angus replied with some venom. Catriona sat up, away from the reassuring thump of Angus’s heart. She suppressed the desire to sigh loudly, as she did whenever the subject of the rightful ownership of Balhennie Castle came up. ‘I wouldnae take a scone off that man, never mind money!’

‘Oh, Angus! Why not?’ Catriona rebuked her husband. ‘If it’s as bad as you say it is, then surely James is our only option. He has the money.’

‘Aye. Family money that’s no’ rightfully his tae squander or hoard!’ Angus exclaimed.

‘Come on. You know he does neither.’ Catriona rolled her eyes. ‘I wish you’d just accept that we got the better part of the deal. Do you really want to have to run that castle? It’s got so many problems. Draughty. Terrible plumbing. There are mice, James told me.’ She gave her husband a firm glare. ‘I wouldn’t want to be responsible for all that, and neither would you. This subsidence is enough of a headache, and this place is tiny compared to a castle.’

‘I bloody would!’ Angus frowned. ‘Given half the chance, I’d have that place shipshape before you could say Jiminy Cricket.’

‘You would not. You’d have just the same problems James does. I think you should ask him for the money. It’s an investment in Balhennie property. In the larger estate.’ Catriona shrugged. ‘I don’t know what the big issue is, really, I don’t. Can’t you put your feud to one side and just go and see him?’

‘No. I cannae.’ Angus held out his hand for his wife’s and took it gently. ‘In the same way that I’d like you to make up your feud wi’ our daughter. But it’s been ten years, Catriona. I’ve never pushed you to go an’ make it right wi’ her, even though I wanted you to. Because I love you, an’ I trust you.’ He raised an eyebrow.

‘That’s not the same thing,’ Catriona said, softly. ‘You know that.’